All Paths Crossing
by Kasumi Todoh
Summary: (Chapter 10 up, complete.) When the Earth is threatened by a powerful new evil, the Sailor Senshi must seek help from some unexpected allies.
1. A Meeting by Chance

**Author's Note: **I first came up with the idea for a Sailor Moon/Street Fighter crossover fanfic about six years ago, inspired (very loosely) by a dream I once had. So, after a couple months, I managed to hammer a fairly decent fanfic (by my standards anyway, which were much lower back then). Problem was, I only saved it on the hard drive of our family computer, without bothering to save any backup copies on disk. (Stupid, stupid me.) You can probably guess what happened next: my stepfather wiped all the files on the hard drive clean, when he upgraded the computer to Windows Me. Thus the 'fic was lost forever.

Or was it?

I distinctly recalled printing out a hard copy of the fanfic for my sister to read, but had lost track of it over the years. I eventually decided that it was for the best, since, by my current standards, the 'fic had become too stupid and too embarrassing for me to show to anyone else, anyway.

Then, after reading a few of the other crossover 'fics at I thought, my story might not be so bad after all. (Uh, no offense to anyone who wrote those other 'fics, by the way. ) Plus, it was the only non-Battle-Arena-Toshinden-related fanfic that I'd actually managed to completely finish. To me, that little fact alone was enough to put it up. So, after an extensive search, I eventually unearthed the hard copy from a box at the back of my closet, copied it back onto my personal computer, and this time, saved it to disk.

And here it is, more or less unchanged from six years ago, with a few new things thrown in. It takes place about halfway through Sailor Moon R (after the episodes with Ail and Ann, but before the episodes with Chibiusa and the Black Moon people), and sometime after the first Street Fighter Alpha game. Mamoru is not in it (I just couldn't find anywhere to stick him in), which means no Tuxedo Kamen either. The Sailor Senshi are going to have other help this time. The only Street Fighter characters that I actually included are Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Sakura, because they're my favourites and adding any more characters would've just made things too complicated. For better or worse, take it or leave it.

Sailor Moon and its characters are copyright of Naoko Takuchi, while Street Fighter Alpha and its characters are copyright of Capcom. Used without permission. All rights reserved. Kaori and Kakkazan are my original characters, so they're copyright of me, and used with my permission. Rated PG for some violence.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction **

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 1**

**A Meeting By Chance**

The spring morning dawned bright and sunny, as it had been for the past few days. In one particular downtown Tokyo neighbourhood, things were relatively quiet, aside from a few chirping birds in the early morning tranquillity.

However, the peace was suddenly shattered by a loud shriek that echoed through the house of the Tsukino family.

"OhnoIoversleptagainthat'sthethirdtimethisweekI'msogoingtogetdetentionforsure!"

A few minutes later, the front door of house opened and out bolted a young girl, wearing a junior high sailor fuku, her blond hair done up in its usual two long ponytails with small buns on top. She was clutching her books in one hand, and a piece of toast in the other.

It was shaping up to be just another typical day for Usagi Tsukino.

This time, however, something happened that doesn't usually happen during Usagi's daily morning sprints to school.

Up ahead, two girls suddenly strolled casually into her path, chatting with each other and failing to notice her. Frantically, Usagi tried to put on the brakes, but it was too late. She was running too fast to stop in time. She smashed into one of the girls, and that was all it took. All three of them went down like dominos, in a flurry of books and papers.

Usagi quickly stood up and started bowing repeatedly to the two girls. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I am so, so sorry," she apologized over and over again.

She tried to help the girl whom she'd just collided with to her feet. Usagi noticed that both girls wore school fukus similar to the one that her friend Minako wore, except that their fukus had a yellow sash at the end of the collar, instead of a red one. They appeared to be highschool students. One girl had shoulder-length brown hair. The other, the one whom Usagi had just helped to stand up, had short brown hair, as well as a long white headband and strange yellow gloves of some kind.

Quickly, Usagi gathered up the scattered books and a few of the papers and shoved them hastily into the arms of the short-haired girl. "I'm really sorry," she said again.

"Hey, no hard feelings," the short-haired girl said with a smile. "I guess we should've been paying more attention to what was going on." She shifted the pile of books and papers, and held out one hand. "My name's Kasugano Sakura. And this is my friend, Takashi Kaori." She gestured toward the other girl. "What's your name?"

"Tsukino Usagi." Usagi shook Sakura's hand, glancing at her watch as she did so. "Oh no! I'm really going to be late now!" She bowed to the two girls once more. "I'm really sorry. It was nice meeting you. Bye!"

Usagi took off again and started running for school at top speed. Ten minutes later, she slid into her desk, out of breath, and late, as usual.

* * *

Sakura and Kaori continued on to their school, still hurting slightly from their encounter. At lunch time, as they sat together at their desks, Kaori remarked, "That was one strange girl we met this morning. I wonder what her story was?"

"I don't know," Sakura replied. "Have you ever had that feeling where you think you've seen someone before, but you just can't think of where?"

Like many people in Tokyo, Sakura was a fan of Sailor Moon, Usagi's alter ego. After Ryu, a top martial artist whom Sakura aspired to be like, of course.

"Anyway, she sure was fast. If she charged into a fighting opponent as hard as she did us, she'd win for sure," Sakura said with a laugh.

Kaori sighed. "Oh, here we go about street fighting again. Can't you think about anything else?"

Sakura looked at her. "Not really. Why?"

Kaori just shook her head. "You and your love for street fighting. Sometimes I really don't understand you."

Sakura picked up some more rice with her chopsticks. "I wonder if we'll ever see that girl again?" she mused, not expecting an answer.

* * *

After school, rather than going straight home, Usagi headed over to the temple of her sometimes-friend Rei, where a meeting had been called. When she got there, she found that she was the last to arrive. Her friends, Minako, Rei, Makoto, and Ami, already assembled in various positions on the temple's front steps.

"Late again, as usual," sighed Rei, as soon as she saw Usagi.

"Don't start, Rei," Usagi muttered.

"Detention again, Usagi?" asked Minako.

"Yeah," said Usagi grudgingly. "As if it was my fault that Ms. Haruna was in such a bad mood today."

"Okay girls, listen up." It was Artemis, along with Luna, Minako and Usagi's talking guardian cats. "Central Control just informed us that a new evil force is heading for Earth."

"A new evil force?" repeated all five girls, simultaneously.

"Could it be the Negaverse returning?" Makoto asked.

"Don't know," Luna shook her head. "It's too soon to tell."

"Have you had any visions about this lately?" Minako asked Rei. Rei was known for having the occasion vision of the future.

"I'm not sure," Rei answered. "I can sense that something's coming, and it's bad. Whatever it is, it's way more powerful that Queen Beryl or the Doom Tree were, and – and we're going to need the help of four other people in order to defeat it."

Of all of Rei's predictions, that was definately one of the more bizarre ones. Suddenly, everyone was talking at once.

"Four other people?"

"Who are they?"

"Are they Sailor Senshi, too?"

"How do we find them?"

"I don't know," Rei answered. "That's all my vision would tell me."

"Not much to go on," Artemis muttered.

"Well, this thing isn't here yet," Luna said, "so I believe that all we can do at the moment is wait and see what happens."

"And in the meantime, I'll see if I can find anything on this new threat, or the people in Rei's vision," Ami added.

Luna nodded. "Whatever it is, we're going to have to watch our backs."


	2. Trouble in the Air

**Author's Note: **I think this chapter required the most revisions of the entire 'fic. I wrote this before I started taking writing courses and learned about character description, plot development, etc. So when I applied all that I'd learned to what I now refer to as the "rough" copy of this chapter . . . well, let's just say it took me three days to fix it up to the point where I was happy with it. And I am happy with it now, or I wouldn't be putting it up here. I think it's much better than what I had before, but I guess you'll just have to decide that for yourselves.

In case anyone's wondering, Kaori is not a self-inserted character. She just a character that I totally made up.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**by Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 2**

**Trouble in the Air**

Just as Luna and Artemis had predicted, a strange and evil being was indeed heading at top speed toward Earth. At first glance, this creature had the appearance of a human woman, if one didn't count her pointed ears, bright orange skin and glowing red, pupil-less eyes. Waves of long orange hair flowed down her back, always moving and rippling, as if it had a mind of its own. She wore a strapless dark-red dress with a jagged sleeves, hem and low-cut collar, that completely covered her legs and feet in its length. Her hair was held down only by a pointed gold tiara, studded with large rubies, that sat perched on top of her head.

Her name was Kakkazan, and she was on a mission to gather enough energy from humans to give her the strength to conquer the Earth, and possibly the whole universe. Others had come to Earth for the very same purpose, but all had failed. Now Kakkazan had her own plan to gather energy from the planet, and she was all ready to carry it out.

In almost no time at all, she had passed through the Earth's atmosphere, soaking up its thousand-degree heat the way a sunbather soaks up the sun's rays. Seconds after that, the country of Japan, and then city of Tokyo, appeared below.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Earth, Interpol secret agent Chun Li had found herself on an isolated assignment in Tokyo. The details of the assignment were still sketchy at best, except that they had to be pretty important, since she had been specifically chosen out of all the other agents.

_At least,_ she reflected, looking out her hotel room window overlooking the cityscape, _it's a nice change of pace._

Tonight, however, things had been rather quiet, and Chun Li had actually managed to secure some time to herself. Dressed in her usual blue-and-yellow outfit with white boots and

spiked bracelets, and her brown hair done up in its usual two braided buns, Chun Li looked like she was getting ready to step into a wrestling ring, rather than sitting at a hotel room desk typing away at a laptop. However, these were the clothes that she felt the most comfortable in.

She was going over the intelligence notes that she had collected so far, when something suddenly drew her attention back to the window. Chun Li looked up, and saw a bright flash streak across the darkened sky. She quickly went out onto the balcony and looked around, but whatever it was, it was gone now. Anyone else might have thought it was shooting star, but Chun Li was almost certain that she saw it head toward the ground and disappear behind some buildings. And yet, there was no sight or sound of anything hitting the ground.

Eventually, Chun Li went back inside and tried to resume working, but found that she could no longer focus. She spent almost an hour trying to get back on track, before finally admitting defeat. With a sigh, Chun Li closed the laptop, changed out of her clothes, and went to bed. But even then, sleep would not come. She just couldn't stop thinking about what that bright flash might have been, and why such a sense of foreboding came over her when she pictured it in her mind.

* * *

Nestled into the mountains above Tokyo, was a small dojo. Most of the time, the dojo stood empty, but at the moment, it was currently being occupied by two martial artists who, every year at this time, both came to this part of Japan to train and practice.

One of them, a man by the name of Ken Masters, was sleeping soundly, until he was suddenly woken up by . . . well, he wasn't sure what it was exactly – like a feeling, perhaps, or maybe something else. He rolled over and started to go back to sleep, when he noticed that the bed next to him was empty. Sighing, Ken got up and lifted the flap that draped down across the door. Ken had a feeling that he wouldn't have to look far to find his training partner and friend, Ryu.

Ken and Ryu were almost complete opposites, from their looks (Ken was American, with long blond hair that he kept tied back with a red band, and Ryu was Japanese, with short brown hair that _he_ kept tied back with a long white headband; Ken also wore a red gi when he practised, while Ryu wore a white gi with tattered sleeves all the time) to their personalities, but ten years of training together under the same teacher had made them fairly close friends. Ken knew Ryu pretty well, which made looking for him quite a bit easier.

Sure enough, Ryu was standing outside, looking up at the sky.

Ken knew that his friend was usually a very solitary person, but he also knew when something was bothering him. "What's up, Ryu?" he asked, stepping outside and walking over to him.

Ryu pointed to the sky. "Tell me what you make of that."

Ken looked up in time to see a large, bright orange flash of something, streaking across the night sky. "Wow," he said, shielding his eyes. "That thing's way too close and too bright to be a shooting star or a comet."

"Something tells me it isn't good, whatever it is," Ryu replied, seriously. "I sense that there's something very evil about it."

"Maybe you just need to get some sleep," his friend suggested, patting him on the back.

"We can't do anything about it right now, so we might as well wait until morning to check it out."

With that, Ken yawned, stretched, and went back inside. Ryu stayed outside for a few minutes longer, and then he too, slowly turned around and disappeared into the dojo.

* * *

"Thanks for letting me borrow your history notes," Sakura said to Kaori, as they walked home from the school the next day. Since they hadn't had any more run-ins with that little blond-haired girl from the day before, their encounter with her had pretty much faded from their memories entirely.

"No problem," Kaori replied. "They'll come in real handy on that test next week."

At that moment, they reached the front steps of Sakura's house. "Well, I guess this is where I get off," Sakura said. "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you to your house? There are some pretty questionable characters around here, you know."

Kaori laughed. "I'm positive. My house is only a couple blocks from here, anyway. It won't take me that long to get home. See ya tomorrow." She turned with a wave, and started walking down the street.

Sakura waved back enthusiastically. "See ya!" Then she trotted up the steps toward her house.

* * *

Around the same, Kakkazan was flying over Tokyo, too high for anyone to see her, but low enough for her to see them.

"Look at all those humans," she muttered to herself. "Each one full of energy just waiting to be taken. Soon it will all belong to me. But in order to observe their weaknesses, I must be able to walk among them unnoticed. For that, I will need a human body."

It was then that she spotted Kaori, walking down the street, alone.

Kakkazan smiled to herself. "Yes. She'll do nicely."

With that, she started diving down toward Kaori.

On the ground, Kaori suddenly had the feeling that someone was sneaking up on her. She slowly turned around, looked up . . . and saw Kakkazan flying straight at her!

"Your body is mine!" hissed Kakkazan.

* * *

As Sakura reached for the front door of her house, a sudden, piercing scream made her freeze. She swivelled her head toward the sound, which quickly came again, a high-pitched shriek of terror. She recognized the voice instantly. Kaori!

Quickly, Sakura leaped down the steps, clearing them all in a single jump. She took off as soon as her feet hit the sidewalk, running as fast as she could in the direction that her friend had gone.

* * *

No matter how fast Kaori ran, Kakkazan kept pursuing her. Frantically, Kaori tried to lose the creature by dashing into a darkened alley, only to run into – a dead end! Before she even had time to turn around, Kakkazan entered Kaori's body from behind.

Just then, Sakura ran up to her. "Kaori!" she gasped. "Are you all right?"

Kaori turned around. She looked perfectly normal. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well. . . " Sakura hesitated. "I . . . thought I heard you screaming."

Her friend shook her head. "It wasn't me. You must've been hearing things."

"But . . . "

"Do you see anything wrong?" Kaori asked her.

"N-no," Sakura replied uncertainly. "I . . . guess you're right. As long as you're okay, then I'll see you at school tomorrow." Sakura turned and walked out of the alley.

Kaori watched her disappear around the corner. Then she smiled an evil smile, and her eyes glowed, red and pupil-less.


	3. Ami's Discovery

**Author's Note: **If anyone's wondering why I used some the English names for some of the Senshi's attacks, and the Japanese names for others, I do have a reason for that. Any time that I use the English name for a particular attack, instead of the Japanese, is simply because I don't really know the Japanese name for that attack. I confess that I've only seen the Japanese episodes starting from the second half of Sailor Moon R, which is after this fanfic takes place.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 3**

**Ami's Discovery**

Ami was sitting in her bedroom. Having finished all her homework hours ago, she was now typing away at her hand-held Sailor Mercury mini-computer, trying to find anything on this approaching evil or the people in Rei's vision.

"Hmm. My computer says that there is a high concentration of evil energy in this area. Maybe I can get a reading on it from here."

Ami typed some more on her computer. A few minutes passed, and then something appeared on the screen. Ami gasped and reached for her communicator. The others had to be told about this.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone was gathered in Rei's bedroom.

"So what's so important that you had to interrupt my pre-dinner snack?" Usagi

demanded.

Rei blew up. "Ami wouldn't have called us all here if she didn't have a perfectly good reason, so try to act a little more mature about it!" she shouted. "Geez Usagi, you can be so insensitive sometimes."

"Takes one to know one, Rei," Usagi yelled back.

Soon both girls were involved in a heated argument.

Ignoring them both, Ami said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "I have discovered some more information about the new threat."

That shut even Rei and Usagi up.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, Ami," Artemis said. "Let's hear it."

"My computer picked up a new source of evil energy, and it has already landed on Earth.

Sometime within the past twenty-four hours."

Rei gasped. "I think . . . I felt something like that, last night," she said. "It felt like an intensely evil force, passing right overhead. I was sound asleep, and it woke me right up, even though I didn't hear a thing. It was the middle of the night, so I thought it might have been just a dream, or a premonition. I didn't say anything, because I wasn't sure what to make of it. But that must've been what it was. I mean, it makes sense, if that's the case."

Ami nodded, and continued. "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to home in on the exact location. I was only able to determine that's it's somewhere here in the city. I tried to get my computer to be more specific, and one word started flashing across the screen: 'Kakkazan'."

"What does that mean?" Makoto asked.

Ami shrugged. "That's all my computer would say. But it must be important. Perhaps it's a clue to the identity of this creature."

"But if this thing's been in Tokyo for a whole day, how come we haven't seen any sign of it?" Minako asked.

"I guess it must be hiding somewhere," Ami suggested, "biding its time and waiting for the right moment to attack."

"You're probably right, Ami," Luna replied. "However, Minako has a point. There aren't many hiding places in Tokyo for an evil interstellar being that wouldn't attract some kind of attention."

"Unless . . . " Artemis pondered out loud.

"Unless what?" everyone else asked together.

"Well, this is just a theory," Artemis went on, "but it might be possible that this creature has the ability to take on human form, the way Ail and Ann could, or else possess the body of a human already on Earth."

"I think I see what you're getting at, Artemis," Minako said. "That way, it could easily blend into any crowd. Like hiding in plain sight."

"That's just great," Makoto said, bitterly. "There are thousands of people in Tokyo alone. Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack."

Ami pulled out her computer again. "Well, if that is the case, then I can use my computer to scan people's energy patterns. If I find anyone with a pattern that doesn't match all the rest, then we'll know that person is really this 'Kakkazan' in disguise. However, given the number of people in Tokyo, that could take a while."

"I guess in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our eyes open for anyone that's acting suspiciously," Luna said.

"What about these other new people?" Minako wanted to know. "Have you found anything on them?"

Ami shook her head. "No, I haven't."

But just then, something strange happened. There came a sudden noise from Ami's computer, and then the pictures of four people, two men, a woman, and teenage girl, appeared on the screen. Even Ami was surprised.

"Who are those people?" Rei asked.

"I'm not sure." Ami typed something on her computer keyboard. Then she looked at the others. "Well guys, it says here that these are the four people that are supposed to help us. Unfortunately, my computer still can't find anything else that can help us locate them. It doesn't even know their names. I guess they must be pretty hard to find. Sorry, guys. I'm trying my best, but I honestly don't have a lot to work with."

"That's okay, Ami-chan," Usagi replied. "Even if it's not much to go on, the info you've already found sounds really useful, and it's better than nothing."

"Wow, who's that guy?" Minako asked, pointing to one of the two guys on the computer screen. "He's a major hunkmeister!"

"Let me see! Let me see!" Makoto scrambled over and looked at the screen, too. "Woo! Two hot guys! And they both look like my ex-boyfriend . . ."

Everyone sighed.

"Don't start with that again, Makoto," Rei said.

Usagi peered over Ami's shoulder, and suddenly yanked the computer right out of Ami's hands.

"I know her!" Usagi cried, pointing to the picture of the teenage girl. "I know this girl! I met her on the way to school the other day. Her name's Sakura something."

"Why didn't you say so?" Makoto asked. "Let's go find her and talk to her."

"Well, I don't exactly know where she lives," Usagi admitted, "or what school she goes to. But I think she's a high school student."

"That's helpful," muttered Rei.

"Hey!" Usagi snapped back. "I do remember what her school fuku looked like. I'll simply go around to all the high schools until I find one with students who wear the same outfit she does. Once I find the right school, I should be able to find Sakura."

"Why Usagi, I don't believe it," Luna said. "You're actually using your brain."

"Yeah. Surprise, surprise," added Rei.

"Rei, why do you always have to be so meeeeeeaaaaaannnnn? Wwwaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Usagi started to howl.

Ami, Luna and Artemis all looked at each other and sighed. This was a nice little scene. Rei yelling at Usagi, Usagi bawling, and Makoto and Minako drooling over the two guys on the mini-computer. Just your typical Sailor Senshi meeting.

* * *

Three days later, Kakkazan had carefully scouted the city, and its people, while in the body of Kaori. Now she was ready to begin her plan.

She called summoned forth a bunch of her helpers, creatures that looked like smaller versions of her own image, except that they wore skirts instead of long dresses, and they also had wings and antennae growing out of their heads. Kakkazan called them Fire Bugs.

She quickly ordered them to start taking the energy from all the humans in Tokyo. The Fire Bugs obeyed, and flew off in several directions.

* * *

The Fire Bugs began attacking people in many areas, including the shopping mall where the five Senshi happened to be, as they took a break from looking for the people in mini-computer. Imagine the girls' surprise, when they turned a corner and saw a Fire Bug drawing energy from a bunch of shoppers! A few people lay scattered on the ground, none of them moving, while other people were screaming and fleeing the mall in terror.

The monster had its back to the girls, so it didn't notice them sneaking into a nearby washroom.

"What are we going to do?" Usagi quavered.

"What do you think we're going to do?" Rei snapped. "We're the Sailor Senshi,

remember? We gotta fight that thing."

Usagi started to whimper again.

"Usagi, get a grip," Ami said. "Rei's right. We've got to transform. Mercury Power Make-Up!"

"Mars Power Make-Up!" shouted Rei.

"Jupiter Power Make-Up!" shouted Makoto.

"Venus Power Make-Up!" shouted Minako.

"Moon Crystal Power Make-Up!" shouted Usagi.

The Fire Bug finished draining the energy of everyone in sight, and began looking around for more. Instead, it found Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus.

"I'm Sailor Moon!"

"Sailor Mercury!"

"Sailor Mars!"

"Sailor Jupiter!"

"Sailor Venus!"

"You have no right to come in here and terrorize these people," Sailor Moon said. "A mall is a place to shop and have fun. We won't allow this to continue. In the name of the

moon . . . "

"In the name of Mercury . . . "

"In the name of Mars . . . "

"In the name of Jupiter . . . "

"In the name of Venus . . . "

"We'll punish you!" they all finished together.

The Fire Bug just laughed. The fingers on its hands suddenly extended, turning into long orange energy-draining cables, which it sent shooting out at the Senshi. Everyone jumped out of the way.

Sailor Jupiter shouted, "Supreme Thunder!" and shot several lightning bolts at the monster. The lightning hit it and knocked it to the floor. Then Sailor Venus used her Crescent Beam attack to hit the Fire Bug again as it was getting up. However, the monster recovered with surprising quickness, and then flew up into the air and disappeared. The Senshi looked around, but the Fire Bug seemed to have vanished. Then it came down directly behind Venus and Jupiter.

"Look out!" shouted Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars.

Their warning came too late. One of the Fire Bug's cables came flying through the air and hit both Jupiter and Venus in the back, knocking them to the floor. Then it turned, saw the other Senshi, and whipped another cable at them. Sailor Moon ducked, and Mars managed to jump over it, but Mercury wasn't fast enough, and took a strong hit to her shoulder. She, too, fell to the ground. Mars tried to do her Fire Soul attack, but the Fire Bug caught her off-guard, slamming her into a wall.

The Fire Bug proceeded to wrap its cables around the four fallen Senshi. Sailor Moon ran to help her friends, only to be grabbed by the monster as well. Then, once it was satisfied that it had all the Senshi, the Fire Bug used its cables and started draining their energy.

* * *

Fortunately, the girls weren't the only ones taking a break that day. It turned out that Ryu and Ken were also in the area, stocking up on food and supplies before returning to the mountains to resume their training.

Suddenly, several loud screams drew their attention to a nearby shopping mall, where they saw crowds of people running from the building in obvious terror.

"Looks like trouble," Ken said, and Ryu nodded. Then they both headed toward the mall.

When they got inside, they found a lot of people lying on the floor, and a large monster drawing energy from five girls in brightly-coloured sailor costumes.

"Who, or what, is that?" Ryu asked.

"I don't know, but those girls need help." Ken quickly did a Hadoken, which burned through the cables holding the Senshi. Angrily, the Fire Bug turned and went after them instead. But as soon as it got close to them, Ryu knocked it down with a Shoryuken.

The Senshi managed to recover quickly from the Fire Bug's attack. They still had no idea who was helping them, but they were grateful for the creature's sudden distraction.

"Sailor Moon! You'd better do it now!" Mars said, as the monster started to get up again.

"Right!" Sailor Moon pulled out her Moon Sceptre. "Moon Sceptre Elimination!"

The light from the Sceptre hit the Fire Bug in the back and blasted it to smithereens.

The Senshi now turned their full attention to their rescuers.

"You're . . . " Sailor Moon started.

Suddenly, Venus and Jupiter grabbed each other and screamed excitedly. "Aieeeeee! It's the hot guys!"

There was no way it could be a coincidence. The Senshi were definitely looking at the same two guys from Mercury's mini-computer.


	4. Answers and Questions

**Author's Note: **Okay, I know this chapter is rather short, and not really well-planned out, but my creative juices have been hampered lately by the fact that I've been sick all week. I may have to take a few days off to recuperate before starting Chapter 5. Bleh.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon / Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 4**

**Answers and Questions**

Sailor Mars looked Ryu and Ken over, and then got into her fireball-throwing pose, with her two index fingers together and pointed at them. "All right, who are you two, why are you here, and what do you want with us?"

"I believe a better question would be, who are you?" Ryu replied.

"Yeah, we'd kinda like to know who exactly we just rescued," Ken added.

Venus put her hand on Mars's arm. "Hey, lay off, Mars. They _did_ just save our lives, you know."

Mars looked at Venus and hesitated for a minute, and then slowly put her arms down.

"Why don't we start by hearing your names first," Sailor Moon said, "and then we'll tell you ours."

Ken sighed. "Fine. Ken Masters. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Ryu."

"Ryu and Ken," Venus said dreamily.

"What lovely names," added Jupiter.

Mars sighed. "Don't mind them."

"All right," Ken said, "now just who are you girls?" Then he added, "Going to a costume party, or are you in a play?"

Sailor Moon stepped forward. "We're known as the Sailor Senshi. I'm Sailor Moon, and these are Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus." She pointed to each of the other Senshi respectively, before adding, "Mercury's the smart one, Venus and Jupiter are the lovesick ones, and Mars is the grouchy one."

"Hey!" snarled Mars. "Be quiet, Meatball-Head!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Meatball-Head! Meatball-Head!"

"Stop it!"

Ryu and Ken exchanged glances. "Wow, they're worse than us when we argue," Ken said with a smile.

"Oh, just ignore them," advised Mercury. "This happens a lot. You get used to it after a while. Now, don't get us wrong. We really appreciated what you did back there. But no one else has ever helped us out like that before. I guess I'm rather curious as to why you would."

Ken shrugged. "You looked like you needed help. It just seemed like the right thing to do."

"How heroic," Jupiter sighed.

"And how come you didn't seem too surprised about seeing Sailor Moon reduce that monster to dust with her sceptre?" Venus added, and then clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing that she may have said too much.

"Actually, I did have a few questions about that," Ken replied. "But then again, Ryu and I have seen some fairly weird things in our lifetime, too, so we're usually not surprised by much."

Suddenly Sailor Moon noticed something. "Heyyyyy," she said, cutting short her argument with Mars, and pointing at Ryu. "That's the headband and gloves that I saw on that girl."

"Huh?" asked Ryu.

But Sailor Moon wasn't listening. "Mercury, take a look. It's the same headband and gloves that the girl I crashed into was wearing. Sakura! Why didn't I see it before?"

"You mean the girl on my mini-computer, Sailor Moon?" Mercury asked. "Another one of the four?"

"Kasugano Sakura?" said Ryu. "I actually know her quite well."

"You do?" Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars all chorused.

Ryu nodded. "We've met a few times. She considers herself to be a very big fan of my work." He couldn't help but smile at the thought of the perky aspiring martial artist.

"Ryu gets more fans than I do," Ken added. "Doesn't seem fair sometimes."

They were suddenly interrupted by several loud groans. Everyone turned to see the other shoppers starting to get up. Now that they had regained consciousness, along with all the energy that was stolen from them by the Fire Bug, the people seemed none the worse for wear.

"Well, our work here seems to be done," Ryu said. "Let's go, Ken. We really should be getting back to our training."

Ken nodded. He looked back at the Senshi and bowed to them politely. "It was nice meeting you girls."

Then they both started to leave.

"We can't let them go," Mercury whispered to the other Senshi. "We might never see them again, and we need their help to defeat this new evil."

Mars groaned. "Do we have to? I think those two are just a couple of show-offs."

Jupiter and Venus were begging now too. "Don't let them leave! We might never meet two hotter guys!"

"Mercury's right, Mars," added Sailor Moon, softly. "We have to trust them, or we'll never get along."

"Oh, fine!" Mars rolled her eyes, but ran after them anyway. "Um, hey! Wait!"

Ryu and Ken both stopped and turned around to face Mars, who was now grinning.

"We . . . kinda can't save the planet without you two," she said.

"Save the planet?" Ryu repeated. "What are you talking about?"

The Senshi exchanged glances. Sailor Moon was the first to speak.

"I think we'd better tell them everything."


	5. Teaming Up

**Author's Note: **Well, I'm feeling much better now, so here's Chapter 5. This means that we're halfway there folks, for those of you out there who are still following this story.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon / Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 5**

**Teaming Up**

" . . . And that's the whole story," ended Sailor Moon. She could tell by the looks on Ryu and Ken's faces that they barely believed what she had just told them.

"And we're supposed to believe this, coming from a girl in a sailor suit?" said Ken, skeptically. "Give me a break."

"I'm willing to believe it," replied Ryu. "After all, we did see the comet."

Mercury nodded. "Yes, that's what we were talking about. I think its name is Kakkazan." She glanced at a nearby clock. "Goodness, it's getting late. Senshi, we have to go."

All eyes now turned to Ryu and Ken.

"Hey, we found you, or you found us, one or the other," Jupiter said.

"And you have to help us," added Venus.

The two martial artists exchanged glances.

"Well, I think we should do it," Ryu said, finally.

"As long as my rep doesn't get hurt by hanging out with sailor-suited teenagers," added Ken.

Ryu turned to him and grinned. "What rep? You and your giant ego, Ken. Geez."

"Hey, shut up!" Ken answered back, and shoved Ryu playfully.

"So does that mean you guys will work with us?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes," Jupiter and Venus whispered, closing their eyes and crossing their fingers.

"Sure, why not?" Ryu answered, and Ken nodded as well.

"All right!" cheered Sailor Moon. "Okay you two, we're having a meeting tomorrow afternoon, at the shrine on Cherry Hill. You know, the Hikawa temple?"

Ken looked at Ryu. "Yeah, we know where it is. We'll be there."

"Great!" said Sailor Moon.

Mars walked over and pointed her finger at Ryu and Ken. "Don't be late," she said sternly, but there was a hint of a smile on her face.

The Senshi and the two boys walked off in opposite directions. Jupiter and Venus's voices could still be heard in the distance, however.

"They're coming tomorrow?"

"What will I wear?"

"What will I say?"

* * *

No one noticed that Kaori had been hiding nearby the whole time, watching the Senshi and the Street Fighters, and listening in on their conversation.

As she turned and walked away, Kakkazan muttered to herself, "These Sailor Senshi are a little too meddlesome. I can see why no one else has ever succeeded in stealing this planet's energy. Oh well, they are but a slight complication in my plan. Once I have everything I need, they will get what's coming to them, as will all humans on this miserable planet."

* * *

The next afternoon, as school was finishing for the day, Kaori was closing her locker when she was approached by Sakura.

"Where were you yesterday, Kaori? I tried calling you all afternoon."

Kaori wouldn't look at her. "I . . . was busy."

Sakura shrugged. "Well, I guess it's too late now. So, do you want to come over to my house this afternoon instead? We could study for that English midterm."

"Sorry, I can't."

Sakura wasn't convinced. During the past few days, Kaori had been spending all of her time alone, by herself. It was almost as if she was avoiding Sakura, and everyone else, for that matter.

"Hey, did I do something to make you mad at me?" the teenage martial artist asked.

"No."

Sakura put one hand on Kaori's shoulder. "Then what's wrong? You can tell me."

Kaori shook her off. "Nothing's wrong. Just leave me . . ."

Then her eyes glowed red and her pupils disappeared, and her voice changed to that of Kakkazan's.

". . . ALONE!"

Kaori stuck her hand out, and a blast of hot wind hit Sakura in the stomach, knocking her backwards into a row of lockers. By the time Sakura regained all her senses and looked around, the halls were empty, and Kaori was gone.

* * *

"Are you _sure_ this is the right place?" Luna asked, as she and Usagi stood outside Sakura's school. Luna had a right to be wary. There had been many times in the past when Usagi had acted like she knew where she was going, when she really didn't.

"Of course, Luna," Usagi replied. "I passed by this place on the way to school this morning. The school fukus are the same as hers. In fact, there she is right now. Sakura, over here!"

Sakura walked over to them. "Hey, you're that girl that crashed into me the other day. Usagi, isn't it?"

Usagi blushed embarrassingly. "Yeah, that's right. And this is my cat, Luna."

"Hello, Luna." Sakura bent down and petted the black cat on the head. Luna purred.

Usagi decided to get right down to business. "Sakura-san, my friends and I need your help."

Usagi went on and told Sakura the whole story, this time leaving out the part about how she and the other girls were the Sailor Senshi. When she had finished, she could see that Sakura looked just as sceptical as Ken and Ryu had.

"I don't blame you if you don't believe me," she added. "Heck, if I were you, I wouldn't believe me, either. But it's the truth, every word of it."

"Well, your story does seem pretty out there," Sakura agreed. "But then again, after everything that I've seen while street fighting, I've come to believe in a lot of things."

"So you'll help us, then?"

The brown-haired girl nodded. "Sure. What is it that you want me to do?"

"We're having a meeting at the Hikawa shrine on Cherry Hill," Usagi replied. "Ryu and Ken are going to be there, too. Why don't you join us?"

"I'd love to," Sakura answered. "Oh boy, I can't wait to see Ryu again. He is the best martial artist on the planet. I'm studying to become just like him. And he's majorly cute, too."

Usagi laughed. "You're starting to sound like my friends, Minako and Makoto. Now, it's a good thing I know a shortcut to the temple, because we're getting short on time."

With Usagi leading the way, she and Sakura headed for Rei's temple.

On the way there, they passed by a hotel. Coming out of the hotel was a woman in a blue-and-yellow outfit, with white boots and spiked bracelets. Her brown hair was tied up in two braided buns.

Usagi stopped so suddenly that Sakura nearly ran into her.

"I don't believe it!" Usagi cried when she spotted the woman. "That's her! The other person that we need to find!" She looked at Luna and added, "It's the woman from Ami's computer!"

Sakura was too busy following her gaze to notice that Usagi was speaking directly to a cat. Her face lit up when she saw the woman that Usagi was pointing to. "Hey, I know her!" she exclaimed. "That's Chun Li! She's a friend of mine and Ryu's! I didn't know she was in Japan."

"Well c'mon, before we lose her," Usagi said, and ran toward the hotel, shouting, "Wait! Stop!"

Sakura and Luna just looked at each other, and then ran after Usagi.

When Chun Li emerged from the hotel after her latest briefing, the last thing she expected to find was Usagi, Luna and Sakura, running up to her from out of nowhere.

"Miss . . . Chun Li?" Usagi panted.

"That's right, but who are you?" Chun Li answered. "And more importantly, how did you know where to find me?"

"My name is Tsukino Usagi." Usagi bowed. "It's nice to meet you. As for how we found you, well, that's part of a long story that I wish to explain to you."

"And you remember me, right?" Sakura asked.

"Of course," Chun Li replied. "Nice to see you again, Sakura. How's your martial arts training going?"

"We came here to ask for your help," Usagi cut in.

"My help?" asked Chun Li in confusion.

Once again, the story came out, this time told by both Usagi and Sakura, and without mentioning the identities of the Sailor Senshi.

"Will you please help us?" Usagi asked, when they were finished.

"You have to," Sakura added. "You're involved in this too, somehow. It's like we're

destined to fight alongside the Sailor Senshi. I think we should help them."

Chun Li hesitated. She couldn't afford any distractions from the assignment at this point in time, but these two girls seemed to genuinely need her help. And she _did_ have a foreboding feeling when she witnessed that strange comet.

"Well," Chun Li replied at last, "I am currently working on another assignment, but I suppose I could take some time off to help you. But only a couple of days. As long as you're sure that this isn't going to be a big waste of time."

"We're sure," said Usagi and Sakura together.

"Now we have to get over to Rei's temple, pronto," Usagi said. "We're already late as it is, and I just know that she's going to go ballistic on me again."

* * *

Ami, Rei, Artemis, Ryu, and Ken were already gathered in Rei's bedroom, when the three arrived.

"Late again," Rei muttered. "Can't you . . . "

She stopped short when she realized whom Usagi was with. "You're . . . "

Introductions were exchanged all around (even though the Street Fighters already knew each other, which came as some surprise to the other girls), and then Usagi, Sakura, Chun Li and Luna sat down with the others.

Usagi looked around. "Hey, where are Minako and Makoto?"

"Makoto said she had something important to do first, and that she'd meet us here later," Ami replied.

"Funny, Minako told me the exact same thing," Rei said.

Just then, the two girls walked in. Makoto was wearing a sparkly black dress, and matching high-heeled shoes. Minako had on a long red dress which matched the ribbon that she always wore in her long blond hair, high-heeled tan sandals, and a cheap gold necklace. Both girls were wearing lipstick and eyeshadow, and smelled heavily of perfume.

For a couple minutes everyone just stared at them, but they quickly got over their shock and started the meeting.

No sooner had the meeting started, than Ami announced that she had some important news. "Great news, everyone. I believe that I've discovered Kakkazan's human identity."


	6. More Discoveries

**Author's Note: **Okay, here's another shorty chapter. I'm really trying to make them longer.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 6**

**More Discoveries**

"What are you talking about?" Usagi asked, confused.

"Usagi, you airhead," Rei replied in annoyance. "Don't you remember? Ami's been looking for people with unusual energy patterns, to see if they might be this Kakkazan thing in disguise. Obviously, she's found someone. You really need to get with the program, for once."

"I think you need to get off my case, for once!" Usagi yelled. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder why I stay friends with you, anyway!"

"It's not exactly a picnic for me, either!" Rei shouted back.

As the two of them bickered in the background, Ami explained to the Street Fighters, "I've been using my computer to scan people's energy patterns, starting with those in this city. I thought that the best way to locate this evil entity, was to find anyone out there with energy patterns that were different from those of normal people's."

"You can do that?" Chun Li asked, looking at the sky-blue computer, which wasn't much bigger than a Palm Pilot. She almost sounded impressed.

"You'd be surprised what my computer can do," Ami replied. "It's very . . . unique."

"If you say so," Chun Li said, folding her arms. "To tell you the truth, I'm still having a hard time believing that there's a big, evil alien loose in Tokyo somewhere, and it's using smaller aliens to drain the energy out of all the people on the planet. I know I had an uneasy feeling from looking at that comet, but this whole thing just sounds like something out of an old sci-fi movie."

"You weren't at that mall yesterday, Chun," Ken replied. "I know we've all seen some pretty weird things before, but what Ryu and I saw there was just too realistic to _not_ be true."

Ryu nodded in agreement, and then turned to Ami. "So tell us, Ami, who is this person that you've found?"

At this point, even Usagi and Rei shut up, for they wanted to hear this, too.

Ami looked closely at the information on her computer screen. "Well, there was one person that really stood out from the others. A girl, about our age, or maybe a couple years older."

"And her name?" Chun Li asked.

"According to my computer, her name is Takashi Kaori."

Usagi and Sakura both gasped.

"That's where you're wrong," Sakura said. "Kaori's a good friend of mine. I knew her long before this 'Kakkazan' came to earth, and I know you've got the wrong girl."

But as she said this, Sakura began having visions of earlier that afternoon. Kaori was acting totally out of character, and then her voice changed and her eyes glowed red, and she slammed Sakura into the lockers without laying a finger on her.

However, she quickly shook those images from her mind. "It can't be her. There's just no way."

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Ami replied, "but I scanned the patterns of everyone in the city with my computer, and everyone else came back normal. Kaori's energy patterns are the only ones that are very erratic and highly unusual. Kakkazan must've possessed her somehow."

"Has it ever occurred to you that your little computer might have some glitches in it?" Sakura demanded, getting angry.

Rei rose to her feet. "Hey! Ami's computer is never wrong!"

"I know Kaori's your friend," Usagi began, "but still . . . "

"'But still' nothing!" Sakura shouted. "It's not Kaori! Pure and simple!"

* * *

However, what she and the others had no way of knowing was, at that very moment, Kaori was crouching under Rei's bedroom window, listening in on their conversation.

Kakkazan realized that they knew everything about her, and worse still, they knew that she had possessed Kaori. Now there was no doubt in her mind that they all must be disposed of, immediately.

She quickly called forth her strongest Fire Bug warrior, and ordered it to destroy the temple, and everyone inside.

* * *

"Look, I don't have to stay here and listen to this," Sakura replied, angrily. "I'm leaving."

She got up and started to storm out of the room, but she only made it halfway to the door.

Suddenly, the Fire Bug burst straight through the door and into the room. It knocked Sakura over, and then started lashing at the rest of the group with its long orange cables.

"What is that thing?" Chun Li shouted as she jumped to her feet.

"That's the same creature we fought yesterday at the mall!" Ryu exclaimed

Rei dodged a whipping cable. "C'mon!" she called to the other Senshi. "We gotta transform, right now!"

"We can't transform here!" Usagi protested, glancing at Sakura and Chun Li.

"What other choice do we have?" Makoto responded. "We can't defeat this monster as ourselves! Let's go! Jupiter Power Make-Up!"

Ami held up her stick. "Mercury Power Make-Up!"

"Venus Power Make-Up!"

"Mars Power Make-Up!"

"Moon Crystal Power Make-Up!"

Sakura and Chun-Li stopped trying to hit the Fire Bug, and stared at the five Senshi as they finished their transformations.


	7. A Small Triumph

**Author's Note: **In addition to apologizing for the shortness of this chapter (although it's actually much longer than it used to be), please forgive me if I get some of the Japanese attack names mixed up with the English names. As I mentioned in Chapter 3, I seen more of the dubbed Sailor Moon episodes and Street Fighter Alpha games than of the Japanese versions.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon / Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 7**

**A Small Triumph**

"So you guys are the Sailor Senshi!" Sakura exclaimed. "Why didn't I see it before?"

"You bet," answered Sailor Moon. "But right now we have more important things to worry about." She motioned toward the Fire Bug monster that was continuing to trash Rei's bedroom.

"We have to get it out in the open," Ryu said. "There's not enough fighting room in here!"

"Leave that to us," Sailor Mars replied. She quickly did her Fire Soul, and pushed the monster toward the open door. Sailor Jupiter added her Supreme Thunder to Mars's fire, and the combined attack knocked the Fire Bug through the wall and back outside.

Everyone quickly surrounded the monster.

"Mercury Ice Bubbles Freeze!" Sailor Mercury shouted. The attack froze the Fire Bug in a block of ice, but a few seconds later, the ice melted and the monster was free.

"Venus Meteor Shower!" Sailor Venus shouted, sending multiple beams of energy out at the Fire Bug. However, the creature saw them coming, and responded by swiftly moving from side to side. Not a single beam hit its mark.

Chun Li threw a small fireball called a Kikoken at the creature, but it simply moved to one side again, and the Kikoken missed it completely. The Fire Bug also effortlessly avoided Ken's Shoryuken and Ryu's Tatsumakisempukyaku. It then flew straight up into the air, causing Sakura's Hadoken to pass harmlessly beneath it. Her fireball continued on into the woods beyond, and vanished.

Much to everyone's surprise, this Fire Bug was much stronger and faster than the one they'd fought the previous day. It dodged almost every attack they threw at it.

The Fire Bug then began to laugh. Several long orange cables extended from both of the creatures hands, and it sent these shooting out in all directions. Mostly everyone managed to dodge the whipping cables, but one managed to wrap around Sakura's ankle, sending the girl stumbling to the ground.

"Cresent Beam!" shouted Sailor Venus, sending out a single bolt of energy that quickly and neatly severed the cable.

"Thanks," Sakura said, getting to her feet. "I guess I owe you one."

"Always glad to be of help," Venus replied."Man, this thing's way tougher than the one we beat yesterday."

"We're obviously not getting anywhere with separate attacks," Sailor Moon said, "so we'll have to work together to defeat this monster."

"Sailor Moon's right," Sakura added. "We need teamwork in order to beat this thing!"

Jupiter ducked as another cable whizzed over her head. "Well, it has to have a weakness somewhere. Mercury, can you scan it?"

"I'll try." Mercury turned on her VR visor and started typing away at her computer. "My computer says that this monster _is_ much stronger, but it's also vulnerable to combined attacks. I think what that means is, that we have to bring some of our attacks together to make them strong enough, and hit the monster at the same time!"

"Wow, your computer really _can_ do a lot," Chun Li said, with both surprise and admiration in her voice.

"Well, it's worth a try," Mars said. "Chun Li, how about your fire with mine?"

The Interpol agent nodded. "Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

She began channelling her energy into creating a much-larger Kikoken. "Mega-Kikosho!"

Sailor Mars did the same thing, and unleashed a wave of fire in the shape of a bird. "Mars Firebird Strike!"

Mars' Firebird grabbed Chun Li's Kikosho in its claws and flew straight at the Fire Bug. The monster tried to dodge again, but it got hit anyway. This time, it was clear by the way the Fire Bug was knocked to the ground several feet away, that their combined attack had worked.

"I guess that _is_ the key to defeating this monster," Sakura said. She turned to Sailor Venus. "Let's try combining our attacks the same way."

"Sure thing," Venus replied.

Sakura sent another Hadoken shooting out at the Fire Bug. Venus immediately added her Crescent Beam to Sakura's fireball, giving it a much-added boost that propelled it even faster through the air.

At the same time, Ryu looked at Jupiter. "I'm going to try Sakura's approach. Can you back me up?"

Jupiter gave him a thumbs-up. "You can count on me," she answered, with a smile.

A little antenna shot up from the tiara on her forehead, and lightning began crackling from it. Jupiter quickly focussed the lightning into forming a large dragon.

Ryu also began channelling the energy from all the lightning in the area, drawing it into his hands to create a larger version of his Hadoken. Both he and Jupiter released their attacks at

the same time.

"Shinku . . . Hadoken!"

"Jupiter Thunder Dragon!"

The Fire Bug got to its feet in time to avoid the combined Hadoken/Crescent Beam, but the creature was so distracted in doing so, that it didn't notice what Jupiter and Ryu were doing until it was too late. Just like with Mars and Chun Li's attack, Jupiter's Thunder Dragon grabbed onto Ryu's Shinku Hadoken and charged it into the Fire Bug, just as the creature turned around. The combination of fire and lightning quickly brought the monster to its knees.

"This one's all yours, Sailor Moon!" Ryu shouted.

"Thanks!" Sailor Moon shouted back. "Moon Sceptre Elimination!"

With a loud cry of pain, the Fire Bug was reduced to a pile of dust.

"Moondusted!" cried Sailor Moon happily. Then she turned to the others. "You guys were awesome!"

As the others congratulated each other on their victory, Sakura ran to the top of the steps that led up to the temple. In the distance, she could see someone running away. Even from far away, Sakura could still see that it was a teenage girl, with shoulder-length brown hair and a blue-white-and-yellow school sailor fuku.

"Kaori," she whispered. "Please say it isn't true."


	8. One More Vision

**Author's Note: **For those of you who may be wondering how exactly Usagi knew to use the Silver Crystal to heal Kooan and her sisters in the later part of Sailor Moon R, I thought I'd use this chapter to provide a possible explanation. For those of you who saw this explained in a Japanese episode that I missed (and I missed quite a few), please ignore this chapter.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 8**

**One More Vision**

Soon afterwards, the Street Fighters returned to wherever they were staying that night, with agreements to meet tomorrow afternoon after school, in front of Usagi's house. The temple was now considered too dangerous, since Kakkazan had obviously discovered that they were holding their meetings there.

Usagi gave each of the Street Fighters her address and directions to her house, and all four of them left. The five Senshi, however, stayed behind to help Rei clean up the mess left behind by the Fire Bug. This gave them a chance to talk in private.

"So," Artemis began, "if Kakkazan really has taken over this kid Kaori, then we need to find a way to defeat the evil deity without hurting the human inside."

Makoto paused in the middle of tacking a large sheet over the hole in the wall. "Usagi, what about using Moon Healing Activation? That was always able to turn Nega-monsters back into normal people."

Usagi looked up from where she and Ami were picking things up off the floor. "But how can I? I lost the Crescent Moon Wand after the battle with Queen Beryl, remember?"

"You still have the crystal," Rei pointed out.

"Rei's right, Usagi," Luna added. "As long as you have the Silver Crystal, you should be to do the Moon Healing Activation."

"Poor Sakura," Minako said. "Her best friend has been taken over by an evil space creature. Can you imagine how awful it must be for her right now?"

"I have a pretty good idea," Usagi replied. "Remember when the Negaverse turned Mamoru against us? Those were some pretty harsh times. Of course, I had you guys to help me through it."

"Then, we gotta help Sakura through this, too," Makoto said. "Even if she doesn't want our help, we hafta be there for her, all the same."

"Makoto's right," Usagi added, and the others nodded in agreement.

They returned to tidying up the room in silence for a few minutes, before Rei suddenly spoke up again. "Hey guys, in all the excitement, I completely forgot. I had another vision this morning."

The others stopped what they were doing, then all turned as one and looked at her.

"Tomorrow afternoon," she went on, "the battle between good and evil will begin. We'll have to work together with the Street Fighters to defeat Kakkazan. And in that battle, all paths will cross."

"Are you _sure_ that's what you saw?" Usagi asked. "'Cause that sounds really weird to me."

"That's because you're too dense to understand my visions," Rei snapped back.

Usagi folded her arms and turned her back to Rei with a loud huff.

"'All paths will cross'?" Minako repeated. "What does that mean?"

"That's the only part of my vision that I'm not sure about," Rei replied.

"Well, I guess the part about 'the battle between good and evil' is pretty obvious," Ami said seriously. "Tomorrow afternoon, we'll all have to face Kakkazan, and somehow manage to end this, once and for all." She looked at Rei. "Any idea of where this battle is supposed to take place?"

Rei shook her head. "'Fraid not. My vision didn't offer a single clue on that one."

"Well then, it appears that you girls will have to be ready," Luna replied. "Are you sure that you'll be able to do this?"

"I know I am," Rei answered, standing up.

"Me too," added Minako.

"Yeah, same here," Makoto replied.

Usagi made a fist. "We're gonna punish this evil and save Kaori, or my name isn't Sailor Moon!"

"Just remember, teamwork is the key," Ami said. "We have to work together if we're going to beat this thing."

"But for now, the only thing we can recommend is that you all go home and get some sleep," Artemis added. "Tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

* * *

Back in her hotel room, Chun Li sat at her desk, going over everything that had just happened. If she ever needed some time alone to think, this was the time.

What had she gotten herself into? Twenty-four hours ago, the most she'd had to worry about was getting her reports out to her superiors on time. Now, Chun Li found herself in a battle to save the planet from a silent invasion that no else knew about – an invasion from outer space, of all places. If what she had witnessed earlier that afternoon really was part of a very elaborate hoax, then the people behind it deserved an Oscar. Deep down, however, she knew, after seeing that creature with her own two eyes, and helping to fight it with her own two hands, that Ken was right. This whole thing was just too realistic not to be true.

If that weren't enough, Chun Li had only become involved at the request of a total stranger whom she had just met – a junior-high-school girl who'd seemed innocent enough at first, but then turned out to be one of the most powerful superheroines in all of Japan. Chun Li found it hard to believe that Usagi Tsukino and her friends were really the Sailor Senshi, but witnessing their transformations was something else that she couldn't deny.

But what surprised her the most was that her friends, Ryu and Ken, already seemed to know all this, even the part about the girls' secret identities. Sakura didn't seem to know any more than she did, but she had just joined their little "battle to save the world" at the same that Chun Li had. Usagi explained afterward that she _was_ planning to tell them eventually, once she and her friends were certain that they could trust Chun Li and Sakura with their secret, but the Fire Bug kinda beat them to it. She'd also added that the reason they already trusted Ryu and Ken was because they hadgone out of their way to help them the previous day.

Chun Li was a little uncertain as to whether she could trust five girls who didn't trust her back. But then again, given the powers that each Senshi displayed, she couldn't really blame them for wanting to keep it as much of a secret as possible. It's not like _she_ went around telling people about her abilities to summon ki and shoot fireballs from her hands.

_So where do we go from here?_ Chun Li pondered to herself as she got up from the desk, walked over and laid back on the bed. Fleetingly, she wondered if it really was a coincidence that she'd been sent to Japan (and to the same city in Japan, as well) at the same time that all of this was happening. Maybe she was destined to fight in this battle alongside her friends and the Sailor Senshi.

If that was the case, then it was too late to back out now. Those girls did seem to genuinely need her help. She had promised to help, and that's what she was going to do. There was too much at stake for her to leave them in the lurch.

Her mind made up, Chun Li went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, and prepare for whatever surprises tomorrow would bring.

* * *

"Well," said Ken that night, "it's been pretty interesting these last couple of days."

Ryu nodded. "It sure has, and it's not over yet. Something tells me that the worst is yet to come."

Ken sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that. I guess that means we're in it for the long haul, huh?"

"We?"

"Of course. If you're not going to turn your back on this – and I know you too well to even think that you would – then I'm sure as hell not about to sit back and let you have all the fun."

"Thanks," Ryu replied. "That means a lot, coming from you. I'm sure it'll mean a lot to the Sailor Senshi, as well."

"I dunno, those girls were really something on their own," Ken said. "I mean, they're just kids, but they fought today like they've done this a hundred times before."

"I seem to recall that we were already fairly good martial artists when we were their age," Ryu responded.

"Hey, speak for yourself," Ken joked. "You may have considered yourself to be 'fairly good', but I thought I was a great martial artist, even back then. Still, you have a point there. I guess looks really can be deceiving sometimes. But those girls were pretty good at holding their own in a fight, if I do say so myself."

Ryu smiled. "And I think a couple of them have a bit of a crush on you. Are you gonna tell them you've got a girlfriend back in the U.S.?"

"And break their hearts? Nah, even I'm not that cruel. Besides, I can't help it if girls find me irresistible."

"You know, it's a good thing we're best friends, or the next time I see Eliza, I might have to tell her you said that."

"You wouldn't dare! I'd kick your ass in a heartbeat."

Ryu laughed and put up his hands in a gesture of peace. "Hey, relax. I won't mention this to Eliza if you won't. But on that note, how about a little light sparring before we turn in? We may need the practice for whatever comes next."

"Sure, why not?" Ken stood up and got into his fighting pose. "Just don't hold back on me, okay?"

Ryu assumed his fighting stance as well. "Do I ever?"

* * *

That night, Sakura lay in her bed, unable to sleep. Instead, she folded her bare hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling, the one area of her room that wasn't adorned with pictures of Ryu.

_What would Ryu do in a situation like this?_ she thought to herself. Well, the answer to that was obvious. Ryu would try to save and protect his friends if they were in any kind of danger. Sakura had always hoped he would do the same for her.

Deep down, she knew that she had try and save Kaori. But how? She wasn't even entirely certain of what was happening to her friend. She definitely wasn't sure whether or not she should buy Ami's alien-possession theory.

After tossing and turning for several minutes, Sakura came up with only one course of action. She didn't like the idea, but she couldn't think of any other options. Kaori hadn't left her with any choice. Sakura would just have to hope she understood.

With thoughts of her friend in mind, Sakura rolled over again, and slowly fell into a fitful sleep.


	9. The Coming of the Storm

**Author's Note:** Well, we're almost there, folks. Only one more chapter after this. (Kinda hard to believe, I know. Ah, where has the time gone? )

I was also just kidding about ignoring the previous chapter.

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 9**

**The Coming of the Storm**

The next afternoon, Kaori left school as soon as classes were finished, and started walking quietly toward a high-rise condominium construction site near the edge of the city. She kept her gaze facing forward the whole time, and she never looked back.

And because she never looked back, she was completely unaware that Sakura was following her. Sakura was determined to find out what Kaori was up to, and then confront her and get the truth for herself.

Kaori finally reached the edge of the site, which was empty by this time. All the workers had already gone home for the day. She jumped down and stood in the middle of the giant hole that had been carved out of the ground for the building's foundation. It was time to put the master plan into action.

She raised her arms, and a white light shot out from them, into the sky. A strange pinkish-purple cloud appeared in the sky, and began to grow larger. Soon it was the size of the entire construction site, and still the cloud continued to expand outwards.

"Once this cloud has covered all of Tokyo," Kakkazan said to herself, "I will start sending out my special bolts of heat lightning, which will suck all the energy from every living thing they touch. Then, my cloud will continued to grow until it covers the entire world, and my heat lightning will drain the energy out of all life on Earth!"

"Kaori, stop!"

Kakkazan turned around. There, standing a few feet away, in her fighting position, was Sakura.

"I won't let you do this," Sakura said. "Even if I have to stop you myself, I can't let you rob the earth of its energy."

Kaori just laughed. "And here I thought I'd taken care of you already. You're pretty persistent, I'll give you that."

Then her voice changed to Kakkazan's. "You're also a fool if you think you can stop me. You really should've minded your own business, human."

With that, Kaori's pupils vanished, her eyes glowed red, and she transformed into Kakkazan.

Sakura gasped. Ami had been right all along!

Kakkazan quickly summoned three Fire Bugs and ordered them to attack Sakura. However, the Fire Bugs didn't last very long with the young Street Fighter. She simply burned through all three of them with her Hadoken.

"_Very_ impressive," Kakkazan replied. "I suppose that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She turned and beckoned to Sakura. "Now, let's see how well you do against me!"

Obligingly, Sakura launched another Hadoken, but Kakkazan dodged it and shouted, "Magma Bolt!"

A ball of molten lava appeared in her hand, which she quickly threw at Sakura. The teenage Street Fighter barely managed to get out of the way in time, as a sizzling hole appeared in the ground where she'd been standing.

Kakkazan then rose into the air and came diving down at her, too fast for Sakura to dodge. She was struck hard in the face and knocked to the ground. Before she could get up again, Kakkazan picked her up and threw her over her shoulder. Sakura landed on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

She finally managed to stand up, and quickly did a Sho-o-ken, but Kakkazan dodged it again. Once more the evil creature flew straight up and, this time, vanished into thin air. She reappeared behind Sakura, who was just starting to turn around, and lashed out with a blindingly swift kick.

As Sakura took another hit, this time in the back, she began to think that this wasn't such a great idea after all.

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone else was gathered in front of Usagi's house, and they were starting to worry. No one had heard from Sakura all day. Chun Li had even stopped by her school, only to be told by some of her classmates that she'd left already, and so had Kaori. Now, Sakura was more than an hour late, but there was still no sign of her.

"Maybe some of Usagi's late habits have started to rub off on her," Rei suggested, but for once, no one was in the mood for her jokes.

"I know I gave her the right address," Usagi said. "Do you think something's happened to her? Maybe we should go look for her."

"Hey, Sakura's a tough kid," Ryu replied. "She can take care of herself."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Chun Li said suddenly, "but I think there's something that you guys should take a look at."

The others turned in the direction that she was looking. In the distance, they could see a large pinkish-purple cloud rising into the air, and getting larger.

"Is it just me, or is anyone else getting bad vibes from that cloud?" Rei muttered.

"There does seem to be a high concentration of evil energy coming from it," Ami agreed.

"Looks like it's headed in this direction," Ken said.

"Looks like it's headed in _all_ directions," Makoto added.

"It appears to be coming from that construction site," Usagi said. "We'd better check it out. Hopefully, Sakura's seen it too, which means she could be over there already. C'mon!"

When they all reached the edge of the site, they could see that this was indeed the source of the strange cloud. They could also see Kakkazan standing in the center of the foundation pit.

Minako was the first to notice that someone else was also in the pit, taking quite a beating. "Hey, who's that down there?"

Usagi squinted at the second figure and gasped.

"Sakura!"

* * *

Kakkazan grabbed the badly beaten Sakura by the sash of her school fuku, and lifted her right off the ground. "Perhaps _this_ will teach you to stay out of affairs that are not yours!" she shouted, as she prepared to strike the final blow.

"Hey, windbag! Up here!"

Kakkazan looked up. There, standing on the edge of the pit, were all five Sailor Senshi.

"Friendships are supposed to be about caring for each other, and looking after one another," Sailor Moon preached. "But you're trying to ruin the friendship between Sakura and Kaori. We will not allow this to continue. I'm Sailor Moon and we're the Sailor Senshi!"

Kakkazan was distracted by Sailor Moon's speech, so she didn't notice the Street Fighters until it was too late. Ken struck her from behind with a surprise Tatsumakisempukyaku, and she went down, still holding on to Sakura. But in one fluid motion, Kakkazan stood up and tossed Sakura aside like a rag doll.

The Sailor Senshi jumped down into the pit. While the Street Fighters and the other Senshi kept Kakkazan occupied, Sailor Moon ran over to Sakura.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll live," Sakura answered. "Just give me a minute to grab a second wind."

They both looked up to see Ken fire his own Hadoken at Kakkazan. But the evil deity simply stood there, spread her arms wide, and absorbed the fireball into her body, leaving her none the worse for wear. The exact same thing happened when Chun Li tried her Kikoken attack.

"Is that the best you can do?" she taunted them.

Sailor Mars decided to try one of her binding scrolls. She waited until Kakkazan's back was turned, then whipped out a small piece of paper with some Japanese writing on it, and shouted, "I call upon the power of Mars . . . Fireball . . . Charge!"

Then she flung the scroll at Kakkazan.

It almost worked, but just before the scroll touched her, Kakkazan turned and smacked it away. As soon as she touched it, the little piece of paper burst into flames and was burnt to a crisp.

"Oh no!" cried Mars. "My scroll didn't work!"

While Ryu and Sailor Mercury decided to hold back, out of concern for Kaori's safety, Venus and Jupiter attempted a one-two combo of their attacks. But Kakkazan dodged first the Crescent Beam and then the Supreme Thunder with such speed and swiftness, that her body became just a blur. When she finally stopped in front of them again, she still didn't have a scratch on her.

"Boy," Venus exclaimed. "Kakkazan is way harder than any other enemy that we've fought as the Sailor Senshi."

"That's not the half of it," Sakura replied as she stood up. "She's the one who created that huge cloud up there. Once it covers all of Tokyo, it'll start a lightning storm that will suck the energy out of everyone in the city, us included!"

"Not if we can help it," Jupiter said.

Kakkazan just laughed. "Do you really think you can defeat me with these silly tricks? Allow me to give you a taste of what you're really up against!"

She then summoned forth a whole bunch of her Fire Bugs, about fifty or so, and told them to attack.

Now, these were just normal Fire Bugs, like the one they'd fought at the mall, but the problem was that there so many of them. Even though the Street Fighters and the Sailor Senshi fought their hardest, with each one using every attack they knew, they were still desperately outnumbered. In fact, for every Fire Bug they knocked down, six more seemed to its place.

Sakura hit one Fire Bug with her Tatsumakisempkyaku, only to be struck hard from behind by another one, knocking her to the ground again. "Kaori!" she cried as she struggled to get up. "I know you're still in there, and I know you can hear me. Please Kaori, we need you to help us!"

Just when it seemed that her shouting hadn't had any effect, everyone heard a small plaintive voice, coming from Kakkazan herself. For the first time, she seemed to hesitate.

"S-Sakura?"

Then, an amazing thing happened. Suddenly, the Fire Bugs wavered and, one by one, they disappeared.

Kakkazan grabbed her head, and staggered back a few paces. "I know what you're trying to do, and forget it! It won't work!" she screamed, although now she seemed to be talking more to herself than to anyone else.

The Senshi gasped when they realized what was going on. Kaori was fighting for control! They could hardly believe it. After nearly a week of being held prisoner in her own body, _Kaori was fighting back!_

Sakura saw it, too. "Kaori! Someone, please help her!"

Mars saw her chance. Pulling out another scroll, she shouted, "Mars Fireball Charge!" and jumped into the air. She landed right in front of Kakkazan and planted the scroll on her forehead. This time, the scroll stuck, and Kakkazan was shocked and horrified to find herself unable to move.

"That oughta hold you for a while!" Mars said, triumphantly.

"Sailor Moon! Do it now!" Ryu shouted.

"You got it!" Sailor Moon replied. But instead of pulling out her sceptre, she grabbed the brooch off her sailor costume, and opened it.

"Moon . . . " she began, and then, almost as an afterthought, added, "Crystal . . . Healing Activation!"

Kakkazan started to glow. The other Senshi looked at Sailor Moon.

"Moon _Crystal_ Healing Activation?"

"Hey, it's working, isn't it?" Sailor Moon replied, and they could see that it was.

"No!" shrieked Kakkazan. "I will never surrender this body!"

But the others could see her leaving Kaori's body and rising up into the air.

Finally, she stopped glowing, and Kaori reappeared, standing where Kakkazan had been. Then, with a loud groan, she collapsed to her knees, and fell to the ground, unconscious. Mars's scroll came off her forehead and floated to the ground.

Sakura ran over to her. After checking to make sure that it really was her, she looked at Sailor Moon and cheered, "All right! You did it!"

"Hey, wait a second," Chun Li said, looking up. "That strange cloud is still – "

That's when Mars screamed, "Look out!"


	10. All Paths Crossed

**Author's Note: **Well, this is it, folks, the final chapter. All good things must come to an end, and that's goes for this 'fic, too.

I'd just like to thank all the people who read, reviewed and supported me through the last two months, particularly mae-E and Cris. I really appreciated your encouragement and support.

Sailor Moon and Street Fighters rule! (Okay, kinda cheesy, but I just couldn't resist saying that.)

**ALL PATHS CROSSING**

**A Sailor Moon/Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction**

**By Kasumi Todoh**

**Chapter 10**

**All Paths Crossed**

Almost instinctively, everyone dove out of the way, as the ground beneath them suddenly exploded in a shower of dirt and smoke. A huge ball of lava left a large, smouldering crater, in the exact spot where they had all been gathered only seconds before. Everyone immediately looked up at the sky, to where the giant Magma Bolt appeared to have come from.

They couldn't believe what they saw.

"No way!" cried Sailor Moon. "It can't be!"

But it was. Highlighted against the huge purple cloud, which was continuing to grow, Kakkazan hovered in the air and laughed.

"You humans are even more pathetic than I thought. Did you honestly think you could destroy me simply by driving me out of Kaori's body? On the contrary, since you've freed me from the confines of that weakened human shell, I have once again regained my full strength and power! Now I shall have the pleasure of personally finishing you off!"

"Sakura!" shouted Ryu. "Take Kaori and get out of here!"

"But . . . " Sakura protested.

Then Kakkazan came diving toward them, and Sakura knew that she had no choice. She had to get her friend to safety. It was too dangerous for her to stay here. She grabbed Kaori under the arms and started pulling her away from the site.

Sailor Venus quickly fired her Crescent Beam, but Kakkazan used another Magma Bolt, which devoured the Beam and continued on to strike Venus in the chest. Ken's Hadoken met with the same result, and one hard kick in the stomach from Kakkazan sent him sailing to the ground as well. Chun Li's Heel Kick proved in effective, as did Sailor Jupiter's Supreme Thunder and Ryu's Tatsumakisempukyaku. Then, while they were still wide open from their own attacks, Kakkazan knocked down Chun Li, Jupiter, and Ryu, all in a matter of seconds, with a series of furious punches and kicks.

Once this was done, she turned, shouted, "Heat Wave!" and blasted the three remaining Senshi with her hot wind attack. They tried to withstand it, but the force of the heat and wind was too strong. All three went tumbling to the ground.

Kakkazan laughed again as she looked over the Senshi and the Street Fighters, who were now all sprawled across the ground. "Is that the best you can do? Well, what did I tell you? No one has ever been able to defeat me."

Sakura dragged Kaori to the edge of the construction site, and then ran back to help her friends.

"C'mon guys," Ryu said, getting up. "We have to get it together and work as a team, like we did yesterday."

"Right," Sailor Mercury replied. "Remember Rei's vision. Teamwork is the key."

"I think I've just figured something else out, too," Sailor Mars added. "In my vision, the part about how 'all paths will cross'? It means that, normally, Senshi's path and Street Fighters' path both go in separate directions. But now they've crossed, and the paths have met at this very spot. It's our destiny, to team up and work together!"

"Vision? Crossing paths? What are you talking about?" Chun Li asked.

"It's a long story," Sailor Moon answered. "But at least now we know what we have to do."

"Work together!" everyone chorused.

"Enough of this!" Kakkazan shouted. "Together or separately, I will still destroy you all!"

"Shabon Spray!" Mercury shouted, using her bubble attack and surrounding everything in a dense white fog.

"Time to fight fire with fire," Mars said. "Fire Soul!"

Because of the thick fog, Kakkazan couldn't see the fire coming until it was too late to try and absorb it. Mars's fire hit Kakkazan right in the face, temporarily blinding her. Before she could recover, she was hit from behind by Chun Li's Lightning Kick. Ryu and Ken combined their Hadokens, while Jupiter threw in her Thunder for added effect, and launched a huge, electrically-charged fireball straight at the still-staggering Kakkazan.

The powerful attack hit the evil creature hard. She fell to the ground and lay still.

"Is that it?" Venus asked, as the group cautiously approached the woman. But just as they got close, Mars saw Kakkazan's arm move.

"Watch out!" she screamed.

Mars's warning came too late. The orange-skinned woman suddenly leaped to her feet and shouted, "Sulphuric Eruption!"

Instantly, there was a low rumbling sound, and the ground began to buckle and heave. Then the group found themselves being blasted by several geysers of hot steam that shot out of the ground beneath them, knocking everyone off their feet.

"I must say, I'm almost impressed," Kakkazan told the fallen group. "That's the closest anyone's ever come to defeating me. Close, but not close enough."

However, she was clearly breathing a lot harder than before. That last move had taken more out of her than she was trying to show.

"Do not worry," she said, almost slowly, "Your deaths will be quick and painless. I guarantee it."

She rose into the air and began summoning all her remaining energy into one final attack, but suddenly she was knocked back to the ground by an aerial Tatsumakisempukyaku in the back. The surprise assailant then landed on her feet next to the fallen Kakkazan.

"Sakura!" Sailor Moon shouted.

"Just waiting for the right moment to jump in," Sakura replied with a smile.

"And not a moment too soon," Ken said as he and the others stood up again.

As Kakkazan struggled to get up, Sailor Moon glanced anxiously up at the sky. The large cloud now stretched almost as far as the eye could see. The lightning storm had to be only minutes away.

"We have to finish this now!" she shouted.

"No problem," Chun Li answered. She looked at Sailor Venus and nodded, and together they threw a combination Kikoken/Crescent Beam at Kakkazan, knocking her over again.

Then Ryu channelled most of his ki into one large fireball, his Shinku-Hadoken, to which Mars added her own fire to make it even bigger. Kakkazan saw this attack coming and tried to dodge it, but she wasn't fast enough. The giant fireball still managed to singe her arm, dress, neck, and hair, as she tried to roll out of the way.

Kakkazan tried once more to get back on her feet, only to find herself face-to-face with Sakura.

"Payback time," Sakura said, in a low voice, and began summoning her ki into her own special attack. Finally, she shouted, "Midare Sakura!" and whacked Kakkazan several times with her Super Sho-o-ken.

"That'll teach you to mess with me and my friends."

It was at this point, that Sailor Moon whipped out her Moon Sceptre. It was time to finish the job.

"Moon . . . Sceptre . . . Elimination!"

Kakkazan was too weak and beaten up to try and dodge the Sceptre's light. In that moment, she realized that she had made one fatal mistake in her well-thought-out plans. Kakkazan had researched all the physical abilities of the humans on this planet, and honed her own powers to be strong enough to overcome any punch, kick, or attack that came her way. But at the same time, she had underestimated these humans' mental and spiritual abilities, and in particular, their ties of friendship. That was where their true power lay, and it was stronger than any physical attack that she could ever hope to stand against. Once this realization became clear to her, Kakkazan let out one final scream of anguish, but also one of resignation and defeat.

Then she was gone, dissolved into a large pile of dust that slowly disappeared.

The sky cleared almost instantly, as the large cloud vanished as quickly it had appeared.

Blinking the sudden sunlight, Sailor Moon said, "We did it. We finally did it."

"Yeah, and just in time, too," Mars added.

"Now we've seen what teamwork can really do," Chun Li replied.

"You're right," Sakura agreed. "But I never doubted it for a second. I knew that only when we all worked together, did Kakkazan not stand a chance."

"Oh, really?" Ryu looked at his young protege. "Is that why you snuck over here alone, without telling anyone, and nearly got yourself killed?"

"Yeah, well," Sakura suddenly decided to study her sneakers. "I guess I have been acting a little bit like a jerk these past couple of days. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sailor Moon replied. "We don't blame you, Sakura. You were in a tight spot. You were just trying to protect Kaori."

"Thanks a lot." The mention of Kaori's name caused Sakura to glance her friend, who was still lying near the edge of the pit.

"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, suddenly. "Now, I don't want to sound rude or unappreciative, but I think you guys might have a lot less explaining to do if you weren't around when Kaori wakes up."

* * *

And so, when Kaori regained consciousness about half an hour later, she was alone, except for Sakura, who was standing over her.

"What happened?" she asked, as Sakura helped her to her feet. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"You just had a bad dream, Kaori," her friend reassured her, "and it's all over now."

A few hours later, Sakura told the others that Kaori was just fine, except for the fact that she had no memory of anything that happened while Kakkazan was in her body.

* * *

The next day, as Rei put it, it was time for the paths to uncross and go their separate directions again. So everyone gathered at the temple to say goodbye.

"Look," Usagi began, "not a lot of people know we're the Sailor Senshi, and we'd kinda like to keep it that way . . . "

"Hey, don't worry," Sakura replied. "Your secret's safe with me. It's the least I can do, since you guys did save my life an' all."

"That goes double for me," Ken added. "Besides, where I come from, I don't think anyone would believe that sort of thing anyway, even if I did tell them. Which I'm not planning to."

"Same here," Chun Li agreed. "Only in my case, I'd also probably spend the rest of my days in a psychiatric facility if I told that to anyone, which is something that I'm not keen on doing."

"I, too, promise not to reveal your identities to anyone," Ryu said, "and I don't break promises to friends."

"So, do you think we'll ever see each other again?" Minako and Makoto asked Ryu and Ken.

"Probably not," Ryu replied. "If what Rei says is true, then I doubt that we're destined to ever fight together again."

"However," Ken added, noticing the disappointed looks on the two girls' faces, "I think I know just the thing that we can give you to remember us by."

With that, he leaned over and gave Minako a quick kiss on the cheek. Ryu did the same with Makoto. For a few seconds, both girls just stood there, in a state of total shock.

Then they both fainted.

"So what are you going to do now?" Rei asked, as she, Ami and Usagi, along with Luna and Artemis, stood talking to Chun Li and Sakura.

"Well, I've got to get back to my assignment at Interpol," Chun Li replied. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, after the last two days, I think I'll be glad to have nothing but paperwork to do for the next week or so."

"And I've got to get back to my schoolwork," Sakura added. "Kaori and I have some serious midterms coming up."

At the mention of school, Ami groaned. "I've been so caught up in this mission that I've let myself fall behind. Now I'm only two chapters ahead of everyone else. I'll have to work really hard to make up for that."

"Don't you have midterms coming up too, Usagi?" Rei asked.

"Yeah, but I've still got a whole week to study for them," Usagi replied, with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Just then, Ryu and Ken came over and joined them.

"Well, we really should get going," Ryu said. "Ken and I were hoping to get in a couple more sparring sessions before supper."

Minako and Makoto quickly came to their senses, and the five Senshi all bowed to the Street Fighters.

"Thanks for all your help," Usagi said. "We really couldn't have done it without you."

"Yes, your help was a great asset in our fight against Kakkazan," Ami agreed.

"No problem," Sakura replied. "I kinda enjoyed it, actually."

The other Street Fighters nodded in agreement.

"It's great to see that the earth is in such good hands," Ryu said to them. "I'm glad we had the chance to fight alongside you girls. Be sure to take care of yourselves, now."

As the Street Fighters turned and started walking away, Rei called out to them, "You

know, you don't have to leave quite yet. You're welcome to stay a while longer."

"What!" cried Usagi. "I thought you said they were a bunch of – "

She was cut off as Rei clamped her hand over Usagi's mouth and laughed nervously.

"Hey, I'm allowed change my mind, aren't I?"

"Weeeelllll . . . "

"Give me a break, Usagi!"

Within seconds, both girls were quarrelling again.

Ryu sighed. "They never quit, do they?"

"Nope, never," Ami answered, shaking her head.

Everyone else began quietly walking away, leaving the two alone to their bickering.

Suddenly, Rei looked up. "Uh, where'd everybody go?"

"Hey, you guys!" shouted Usagi. "Wait for us!"

She and Rei started running after them.


End file.
